


Romance Dawn!

by IceAngels



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Kinda canon compliant, Youtube AU, but its a modern au so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2019-09-28 17:59:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17187713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceAngels/pseuds/IceAngels
Summary: Luffy's adventures in the city of Twin Capes! How he meets his friends and the crazy adventures he goes on.Told partially (mostly) in video transcripts from Luffy's youtube channelAuthors note: I've added all the relationship tags that I have planned for the story so far, so sorry if its disappointing that a certain relationship is not in the story now, but IT WILL BEI'm going to update the character tags as they get introduced so at least, that will be up to update





	1. Romance Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy starts his youtube channel and moves into the big city with Nami and Zoro

**[VIDEO: Romance Dawn]**    
Scene: A beachfront at sunrise. The words Romance Dawn fade into the scene and fade out slowly at the camera starts to move. 

A voice directly behind the camera calls out "Look - it's the moon!" The camera zooms in shakily on the moon where it stays for barely a moment before it speeds down to focus on a girl with short red hair swaying on the beach. She has her eyes closed and shes laughing slightly. She turns and looks at the camera with a smile. 

There’s a shot of the water lapping against the edge of someone sandals, creeping over the platforms and brushing against their toes. They take another step into the water. 

A difference voice calls from behind the camera. "You can't swim! Dumbass!" The voice calls from behind and the camera swings around nauseatingly fast to center on a rather close up face of a scowling Asian guy with short black hair and one pierced ear. 

"Luffy -" He frowns "Stay out of the water, I don't want to have to drag you out again." 

The first voice, Luffy, laughs behind the camera. 

The shot changes to that of the sun in the distance, barely peaking above the horizon. The shot cuts again to the red-haired girl. 

"What are you doing?" She touches the sunglasses that are resting on her head. 

Luffy laughs. "I'm filming! I want to document this!" 

The girl laughs "A day at the beach?" 

"No!" He objects, "It's a special day" 

There’s a ten second shaky time lapse of the moon drifting across the sky. 

"Hey Zoro! Hold the Camera" 

The camera switches hands and ends up pointed at the sand. 

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Zoro asks. 

"Point it at me!" Luffy announces again. 

The camera pans up to show a guy in the distance with the sunrise to him left over the water. He's wearing a red t-shirt with a worn unrecognizable logo on it and ratty jean shorts and sandals. His arms are stretched in the air and he's grinning. He's wearing a Straw Hat. 

"We're moving to the city!" He screams to the sky as the red haired girl steps in front of the camera. 

"No- Nami!" Luffy exclaims. 

The video cuts again, to a black screen for a moment before shifting to a 20 second clip of the sun rising over the water. 

**[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION]**  

 

* * *

 

 

**[VIDEO: Moving Up]**    
There’s a shot of Luffy stepping away from the camera, there's a plain grey wall behind him. He's wearing a similar outfit to the day before, except he's wearing a green tank top. He grins at the camera. 

"G'morning! I'm moving today!" 

The title slide is simple black with white block text that reads "Moving Up" 

The scene switches to the camera being moved around. It's pointing at a small room, which looks like it barely fits a twin bed. The bed is small and a disaster, the walls are filled with posters and artwork. "This is my old room, I've lived here since I was six and my grandpa threw me here." Luffy narrates.  

He points the camera out the window, pushing aside the white curtains and breaking the curtain rod in the process. "Fuck" He calls, and tosses it out of camera. 

Out the window the camera focuses on the trees below and the water in the distance. It zooms in on the ocean. "I'm moving over there." Says Luffy cheerily. "Twin Capes!" 

The camera shot zooms out slowly before switching to a time lapse of Luffy grabbing boxes and packing up his room. 

It slows down to normal speed again and now Luffy's sitting on one of the surprisingly few boxes in the middle of the mostly empty room. 

"Well, that's done! Now its on to Zoro's and Nami's!"  

There’s a clip of a car packed with boxes. 

It shifts again to a video of Zoro lounging by the side of the road in a small pile of four boxes while the camera films the car coming to a stop in front of him. 

He smiles up at the person behind the camera. "All ready to go?" He asks. 

The camera shifts to another shot of Zoro, this time he's driving the car. 

"Filming again?" He asks Luffy barely taking his eyes off the road. 

"Yep!" Says Luffy. The camera pans out to the country road they're on. "I don't think this is the way to Nami's house." 

"Nonsense." Zoro scoffs off camera "I've been there a million times, of course I know the way." 

The camera cuts again to a shaky shot of the car pulling up to an old baby blue painted farmhouse. The camera shakes as Luffy jumps out of the car. 

"NAMI!" He shouts. "We're here! Zoro got lost again!" 

"COME ON IN!" A voice shouts back. 

There’s a shot of Zoro carrying four boxes at once out to a battered blue subaru. 

"Hey luffy" Comes Nami's voice from off camera. "Come on and help out, don't just stand there!" 

The camera shakes and then the video goes dark for a moment before it shifts back to another scene. 

Luffy’s filming from the backseat of a car, the two figures in the front seat are Nami and Zoro, there's a line of cars in front of them and there's a loud horn as a bright yellow ferry slowly chugs its way up to the dock. The camera zooms in on the ferry as Zoro starts up the car again. Cars start to slowly drive off of the ferry.  

The video shifts again to a shot of the yellow side of the ferry gliding against the water and churching up white caps as it goes. The camera pans up to the ocean and points at the large island that’s slowly getting smaller in the distance. Nami is also in the shot, her orange hair is getting whipped around slightly by the wind.  

There's a shot again from the car as Nami’s yelling at Zoro and pointing to a map and then out the window. “That way! That way!” She yells at him pointing out the front window to the left.  

“Okay, I got it.” He grumbles and turns right as she shrieks at him in frustration. Luffy laughs from behind the camera and Nami whirls around to glare at him.  

The video shifts again this time to a view of a city skyline, slowly growing closer as the ferry approaches the docks. Theres a howling wind in the background.

“We made it!” Luffy shouts too loud for the camera. “Twin Capes City!”    
**[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION]**  

 

* * *

 

 

"So - Why were you filming all that stuff?" Asks Nami as she pulls a pair of scissors along the top of the box and rips it open. 

Luffy laughs nonchalantly as he places books haphazardly on the floor around his cardboard box. "I'm starting a Youtube channel! I already have a video up!" 

Nami lets a small smile slip out as she sets aside the tape dispenser and pushes the box off to the side. "Oh really? Is it popular?" She’s already thinking about how she could get money out of this. 

"Yep!" Exclaims Luffy. "My video has 4 views!" 

Nami tries to suppress a smile of at the pure incredulity of his enthusiasm as she pulls out her phone. "What's it called?" She asks. 

"Romance Dawn." He replies as she types away on her phone. 

"Well, I found it by searching from least popular to most." She mutters under her breath. She smiled as she saw the title of the channel, which was ‘Straw Hat Pirate’, he still didn’t have a profile picture.  

"Congratulations, you've now got 7 views." 

"Yes!" Shouts Luffy, pumping his fist in the air. 

Nami watches the video, it's okay, she thinks, for someone who's never made videos before. "Luffy - this video is great - but it's also terrible" 

Luffy pouts as he rips open a box with Nami's name across the top of his box in near unintelligible handwriting. 

"I can hear you breathing in the background the whole time" She comments and she restarts the video, this time with Zoro peering over her shoulder. She grins at Luffy. "But It's got potential. I'll be your production manager." 

Luffy's grin grows even wider "That's great! That's my least favorite part of the job!" 

Nami sets her phone down on one of the unopened boxes but Zoro picks it back up and replays the video with a slight smile. 

"What's a production manager?" Luffy asks Zoro as Nami moves across the room.   
"Hell if I know." Zoro replies, "but I like the video." Luffy laughs. 

 Nami rolls her eyes as she picks up the box to move it into the kitchen. As she stands, she looks around at the mess that they had already made of the apartment.  

“What are you unpacking, Luffy?” She asks.  

“You’re books.” He grins up at her.  

“You’re not supposed to unpack the books until we get bookshelves!” She exclaims, wiping sweat off her forehead. The late summer heat must be getting to her. Especially without the seashore breeze she was used to. 

“There was the bookshelf I saw on the side of the road on the way here.” Zoro says, placing Nami’s phone on top of the box she’s already carrying.  

She glares at him. “You don’t even know where to find that again. You got lost like ten times on the way here and _I was giving you directions_.” She reminds him.  

Zoro frowns at her, opening his mouth as if to argue with her. “Never mind that.” She sighs, giving him a quick glare to show him that she’s still annoyed with him. “You two finish getting all the furniture out of the trailer, I want to return that thing as soon as possible. Things cost money!” 

“Sure!” Luffy jumps up off the ground and drags Zoro out of there before he can say anything. Nami sets the box down on the simple black countertop. She pulls out the extra pots and pans that she took from her mother’s house. It’s not like they would need them with one less mouth to feed. 

She started putting them and all the other stuff she had taken, like spices and silverware and a few plates, and started putting them away in the cabinets.  

She heard a slam against the door and a muffled “Nami! I locked myself out!” That was obviously Luffy. She pulled the door open and Luffy ran in carrying a bookcase, which he dropped in the living room and then ran back out again.  Nami propped open the door and looked around the small apartment properly. 

It would fit them all, even if not spaciously, but they were in the big city for the first time. It might have just been across the bay from their old home, but it still felt like a lifetime away from the small community they had grown up it. 

Nami thought of the video that Luffy had made with footage from that morning. It was a special day. It was the start of their adventure, just the three of them, and wherever they would go.  

 

* * *

 

 

**[VIDEO: Meet Straw Hat Luffy!]**  

Opening shot: Luffy sitting in a sparsely decorated Living Room. He’s wearing his Straw Hat as normal. His outfit is pretty similar to the one that he wore for the first two videos. Instead of a title slide, there’s just the words Monkey D Luffy that appear in red text over his head with an arrow pointing to him.  

“Hello!” He says cheerily. “Welcome to my YouTube channel! I’m Luffy!” He struggles for a minute to find something before he pulls out a crumpled slip of paper from his pocket. “I have a list of questions that I should apparently answer in order to get to know me.” 

“What’s your name?” Luffy! 

“Why do you always wear that hat?” He looks up past the camera. “You know why I got the hat, why do I have to tell you.” 

“It's not for me, it's for the camera.” Says Nami off-camera.  

“Oh right,” Luffy looks back at the camera. “I got this hat from this guy I met when I was six, he gave it to me and told me to follow my dreams. His name was Shanks and he totally a pirate and was the coolest person I’ve ever met!”   

“Where are you from? I’m from Foosha Village, which is on one of the islands all the way out in Twin Capes harbor, we had to take a ferry ride here, which was like _an_ _hour long_ and we had to do it twice to get all the stuff over here. But it was worth it, because now I live in the city!” 

“Why did you start a YouTube channel? Because I thought it would be cool, and I enjoy videos and filming things.” 

“Who are those two people in the last video?” Luffy laughs. “Those are my two best friends in the whole world. Nami, Zoro come over here!” The camera cuts to a slightly different shot and now Nami and Zoro and sitting on the bed and Luffy’s standing next to them. 

“This is Nami” He points to Nami, “and this is Zoro, they’re both from the same island and we went to high school together, but they graduated before me, but still, they stuck around for a year so that we could all move to twin capes together. They’re both very awesome, Nami loves money and the tangerine orchard her family owns and being right all the time, while Zoro loves swords and fighting people and getting lost” He says this very fast and without stopping for a breath. The two people look a little bit annoyed at his description of them. 

The shot moves back to similar to how it was before. 

“What do you like to do for fun? Um, I guess I like to hang out with my friends.” He beams at the camera. “And now we live together so I get to do that all the time.” 

“What is your favorite food?” He laughs. “That obvious, meat!” 

“Can you swim? No, and I can tell that this is your handwriting Zoro and it’s _not funny.”_ He frowns and the shot changes again.

"Whats the craziest thing you're ever done? UH, theres a lot of them, maybe get eaten by an alligator? The last book I read? Nami you know I don't read." He looks back at the paper his eyebrows furrowed. "How long is this anyway?" He flips it over and signs.

“Okay, speed round!” He takes a deep breath and stares intently at the paper “How old are you? Nineteen. Best superpower? Bouncy? Best place in the world? Twin Capes. Greatest fear? I'm not dump enough to say it. What’s your favorite meal? All of them. Maybe dinner, there's generally the most meat there. Do you have any siblings? Yes. Brothers. Do you have any pets? No, but I had a dog when I was a kid. What is your dream job? Pirate. When are you going to get a job?” 

He paused at that one, reads it again, sighs and looks up at the camera. “Nami!” 

**[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Important Question time! 
> 
> Should I show Luffy meeting each of the rest of the East Blue crew or should I just have them be introduced after he's met them?


	2. Welcome to Twin Capes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Sanji and Usopp, and Luffy meets food, lots of it.

**[VIDEO: Kicked Out]**

The video opens, vlog style, on Luffy’s face as we walks down the street. He’s wearing his typical straw hat.  “Hello, so Nami kicked me out because she’s cooking, which in my opinion, is very rude, especially cuz shes making meat.” He stares off dreamily into the distance for a moment. 

The camera cuts to a park, there's a couple of pigeons flying around. The camera still moves as he’s walking, he’s talking over the video. “So, it’s been like a week and a half, maybe, since we moved here. It’s pretty nice, there’s _loads_ of pigeons.” As if to demonstrate that fact, the camera zooms in on a pigeon that’s pecking around on the ground before it gets startled by a loud crash flies away. 

The camera whirls around, now giving the audience a lovely shot of the ground. “Whoops, looks like someone crashed their car.”

The video switches back to vlog style. “There's so much more stuff in the city than there was on Dawn Island! There’s car crashes, and ambulance sirens, and lots of buildings, and lots of pigeons! It’s great!” Luffy grins. 

The camera switches to a video of a park bench.  It’s a dark green color. “This is my favorite bench so far, I haven’t seen to many benches in this city so it might change.”

He sets the camera up on the ground and then does a back flip off the bench, he lands out of shot. 

There’s a shot of the water. A few fishing boats are bobbing as waves push them gently around. “This is the harbor, I think Dawn Island’s out over there.” an arm that obviously belongs to luffy points out across the water towards nothing.  

He moves the camera; the shot is now of across the harbor. “Over there is an aquarium that I really want to go see.” There's a blue building that vaguely resembles a whale that Luffy zooms in on, but its far away and the shot is grainy. “It’s shaped like a whale! How cool is that!”

It shifts to a shot of small restaurant called ‘Little Garden’ The lights are on and a few people are eating inside. “This is a really good pizza place, I’d buy something right now, because I’m so hungry, but Nami took my wallet before she kicked me out.”

There’s a laugh as Luffy adjusts the camera and it points down at the sidewalk. “Not that it has much in it, I still haven’t got a job. Zoro and Nami both have jobs, but I think Nami’s trying to get a different job. She’s scheming, at least.”

There’s a shot of another pigeon. “I like this guy, I think I’ll name him Joe.” The camera spins as Luffy tries to hold on to it and grab the pigeon at the same time. Suddenly, the camera falls and is pointed up at the sky for a moment before a triumphant Luffy steps into frame above it brandishing a pigeon. “I caught it!” 

Another vlog style shot. “Joe the pigeon escaped.” Luffy pouts at the camera. “I was hoping to bring it home, of course I can’t go back there right now.” A grin bursts onto Luffy’s face. “I know where I can go!” He exclaims. He opens his mouth to respond when he pauses and fishes his phone out of his pocket. It’s a grey flip phone with a little tangerine keychain on it. 

He flicks it open and reads the text. “Sweet!” He yells at the phone before snapping it closed and staring up into the camera. “Dinner’s ready!”  

**[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION]**

* * *

 

 

**[VIDEO: The Best** **Restaurant** **in the City]**

The shot opens vlog style on Luffy, from a distance. He’s sitting on a messy bed, bouncing up and down slightly. “I got a job!” He exclaims to the camera “I get to deliver all the local Pizzas and Spaghettis and stuff for Little Garden, but only the ones within 10 blocks because I can’t drive. It’s okay but I’m not allowed to eat the pizzas, which sucks, and I can smell them while I'm delivering them and that’s even worse. But I got my first paycheck, so I’m going to blow it all on food!”

There’s another voice yelling unintelligibly from the other room. Luffy looks back at the camera “I’m going to blow half of it on food! Because Nami wants the other half for rent!”

The scene changes. The camera is propped up on a table and you can see Luffy’s face at an awkward angle. 

He speaks quietly to the camera. “this is an Indian food place, the food is really spicy.” He holds up a menu in front of his face. “I’m just gonna get one thing because I want to still have money for all the other resturants.” The video fast forwards through him ordering food. Its stops when the waiter brings him the food and then speeds up again as he finishes it very quickly.

There's a shot of the outside of the restaurant, which is painted a magenta color. It switches to a vlog style as Luffy walks. “Their food’s pretty good, spicier than I like and not enough meat, too many potatoes, you know. I’d give them a 5/10? Do I have to rate these?”

He holds up a takeout back that has a smiley face and says ‘thank you’ on it. He’s sitting under some trees in the park he was in at the last video. “Shwarma! It was really crowded so I got takeout” He explains. There's a speed video of him eating the meal. “7/10! Meat!” He says.

He’s vlogging as he walks again, passing people on the street. “I don’t know of two many restaurants around here so I’m just going to keep walking until I find one.” He stops suddenly and the camera moves around. “This is the place I work, although I already showed you it.” The camera is pointed at Little Garden. “Hey, Usopp’s there, I’m gonna go say hi!” He walks into the store with the camera still filming. “Hey! Hey Usopp! How are you.”

Usopp, a tall guy with a long nose and busy black hair held back with a bandana looks up from the counter and smiles. He’s wearing a dark green apron with the Little Garden logo on it. “Hey, Luffy! Great to see you again. What’s with the camera?”

“I’m filming for my Youtube channel, I’m going around at reviewing all the restaurants.”

“Oh wow, that so cool.” Usopp looks right at the camera and points a thumb towards himself. “I’ll have you know that Little Garden is the best restaurant in all of Twin Capes. And we’ve got the best servers.” He winks at the camera. 

Luffy laughs behind the camera. “Haha you’re so funny Usopp!” 

“Hey what’s the name of your Youtube channel, I want to check it out.” The camera shakes as Luffy lowers it and it cuts to another shot as Luffy walks down the street. 

“Usopps great.” He says. “I think he’s a university student, he’s my favorite, uh, coworker. And he’s my friend now. He’s really funny.” Luffy laughs. “I’ve eaten their food before and I really like pizza with grilled chicken and pepperoni - Oh, here’s a restaurant I haven’t been to.” 

The front of the store is painted a dark blue, and the door is stained wood, and looks heavy. Luffy opens it and walks in, you can immediately hear two people arguing somewhere in the restaurant and the sound of someone chopping something in the kitchen, which you can see from the seating area. 

Someone walks in front of the camera and stops. They’re wearing a simple dark suit and carrying a silver tray, their face is cut off by the shot but their bronze nametag is visible and says ‘Sanji’. 

“Oi,” They say. “You can’t film in here.”

The video goes to a black screen. 

The scene changes again, this time back to Luffy’s bedroom. He stares at the camera from his bed, grinning. “Oh okay! So I cut that short because I found the best restaurant in all of Twin Capes and all of the world! It’s! The! Greatest!” He shouts. “The waiter was kickass too, he kicked out some guy who complained about his food! I want him to be my friend. His name is Sanji and he’s great and I’m going to go back there again to say hi to him. Its called the Bar-tie or something and its like a fancy French restaurant but it wasn’t super expensive and all the food was SO GOOD! They wouldn’t let me film though.” He frowns. “That was annoying, but at least I now know where the best restaurant in the world is!”

The video cuts out and this time there’s an end screen. It just has a suscribe button and the words ‘Straw Hat Pirate’ in red text on a black background.

**[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION]**

 

* * *

Nami, Luffy, Zoro and Usopp are walking down the street, Luffy’s walking slightly ahead of them, slightly skipping as he walks. Usopp’s striking up a conversation with Nami and Zoro’s looking around, not really at anything. Luffy stops suddenly and waits for the rest of them to catch up before he gestures to the dark bue storefront. 

“ta-dah!” He announces, waving his arms towards the front of the store. “This is the bar-tie" He says it like its two separate worlds.

Usopp frowns and mutters to Nami “I don’t think that’s the right pronunciation.”

They all walk in, the resturant's mostly empty despite it being around dinner time. A waiter comes up to seat them. “Hey, is Sanji here?” Luffy asks enthusiastically. “Tall? Blonde? Cool eyebrow?” 

The guy frowns at Luffy. “Yes, he’s working in the kitchen tonight.”

“Cool.” Says Luffy, disregarding him. “Can he be our waiter tonight, he’s my friend.” 

The waiter seems hesitant, but leads them to their seats and then disappears into the kitchen. 

“Who’s this Sanji guy?” Asks Nami, taking a seat. “And when did you become friends with him.”

Luffy laughs. “He’s great, you’ll see, and last time I was here.” He turns half around in his chair and peers towards the kitchen. He lights up when he spots Sanji walk out from the Kitchen and towards their table. He waves his arm in the air.

Sanji looks rather confused as he walks over. 

“Sanji! Sanji! You came! It’s great to see you!” Greats Luffy. “It’s me! Luffy!”

Sanji frowns at him. “Oh right, you from the other day. You didn’t bring your camera at least.”

“I remembered!” Said Luffy not at all off put by Sanji’s try tone of voice.

 “I work here, you know that, right.”

“Yep!” 

“And I’m currently working here, in the kitchen.”

Luffy pouts. “But you’re my friend.”

“No - I am not your friend.”

Nami takes the moment to pipe up. “It isn’t much use now, he’s already chosen you as a friend, believe me, I know.” 

Sanji glances up at her and his demeanor immediately switches from mildly annoyed to cordial. He gives her a small smile. “I’m sorry to hear that, you seem rather nice, what’s your name.”

Luffy jumps back in. “That’s Nami,” He goes around the table and points to each one of them “Usopp and Zoro.”

Nami smiles back at Sanji as Luffy says her name. “Are you going to be our server tonight?” She asks, as if he hadn’t already said no.

“Yes,” He says. “I’ll be out with drinks in a bit.”

He leaves and goes back towards the kitchen. 

Luffy laughs and reaches across the table to high five Nami “Thanks!” He says as they slap palms. 

Zoro frowns at Nami, having watched the whole thing play out rather silently. “You know he’s hitting on you.”

“I know this.” Says Nami, tucking a hair behind her ear. 

“And you’re not going to tell him you’re gay?”

“I’m pretty sure I can get a free desert out of this.” She smiles at this and Zoro scowls back. He’s still scowling when Sanji brings over a tray of drinks. 

He sets them down on the table as he says their name. “A water, a lemonade, a milk and another water.” 

Zoro scowls up at him. “We didn’t order anything.”

“You don’t order anything here, we order for you.” Luffy snatches the milk from the center of the table before anyone else can grab it. While Usopp reaches for the lemonade

“That sounds unsafe.” Comments Usopp, “what about food allergies?”

“Ah right,” says Sanji, “Any food allergies?”

“Nope” Says Luffy cheerfully as he pushes aside his empty glass of milk. 

“Strawberries.” Admits Usopp.

Zoro shakes his head, still scowling, while Nami answers with a no and a smile. 

They chat about what they’ve been doing in the city. Usopp complains about school and the difficulty of university classes. Zoro talks about the annoying kids at the Karate dojo he’s been teaching at. Nami talks about how she’s still trying to figure out how to bridge the gap between being a secretary at a news network to being a weather girl.

“You could kidnap the current weather girl and hold her hostage until they let you replace her.” Nami shook her head.

“No, Luffy, that would get her arrested.”

“You could _not_ hold her hostage, just kidnap her and take her place, no one will notice.” Suggests Zoro.

“Someone might notice.” Says Nami dryly.

“Is this the News station on 5th avenue?” Asks Usopp.

“Yep.” She signs. “Skypeia News Network, such a terrible name. You wouldn’t happen to know Joe Skypeia or something, would you?”

“Actually, it’s Steve Skypeia.” Says Usopp, and Nami perks up. He laughs. “No, I don’t, I don’t really have connections, I’m from Gecko Island, it’s just a little bit farther out into the harbor than Dawn Island.”

“Oh, I’ve been there once,” chimed in Zoro “There weren’t to many geckos.”

“Get on the wrong ferry?” Mutters Nami under her breath. Only Luffy hears her.

“There aren’t any.” Says Usopp. “It’s really a terrible name for an island with very few lizard. Although when I was a kid -”

Usopp is interrupted by Sanji’s sudden presence. He passes out food to each of them. A kind of yellow soup in front of Nami, some kind of meat and rice in front of Luffy, a asparagus and small steak for Usopp and a creamy potato dish with some kind of nut in it in front of zoro.

“Meat!” Luffy beamed up at Sanji.

“Yes, I could hear you muttering about it the whole time you were last here, I remembered” Sanji smiled slightly as everyone started to dig in. 

“Thank you.” Called Nami. Sanji smiled at her and then twirled around and headed back to the kitchen, humming. 

Nami held something up to show the table. “Hm,” She said turning it over. “He smokes.”

Zoro looked up from poking his dish. “Why’d you do that?” He asked. 

She shrugged, “thought it was his wallet, figure out who he was, take his library card, you know.”

He frowned. “I’m going to give that back.” He reached for the pack of cigarettes and knocked over the salt shaker onto the table.

Salt spilled out and Usopp grabbed it, scooped up the salt and sprinkled it over his food. “This stuff is delicious!” He exclaimed as Zoro snatched the cigarettes away from Nami finally. 

Luffy says something unintelligible with his mouth full. 

Zoro pushes his chair away from the table and walked towards the kitchen. 

He finds Sanji cooking something, a desert, by the looks of it, something with fruit and crushed ice. Nami was probably right. 

“Hey - waiter guy – Sanji.” He calls out. Sanji, startled, drops the can of whipped cream he was carrying. He dives and catches it before it hits the floor. 

Zoro smiles, impressed. Sanji turns and Zoro waves the pack of cigarettes in the doorway. “You dropped these out there.”

Sanji sets the can of whipped cream down and heads over. He eyes him suspiciously and places a hand out for the cigarettes. 

Zoro drops them into his waiting hand, where he flips it over once, checking they’re really his, and then pockets them. “Thanks,” he says. 

“No problem.” Replies Zoro.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Zoro nods, hoping that this question has nothing to do with Nami. He doesn’t want to make it awkwards and definetly doesn’t want to lie. “What’s the deal with your friend Luffy?”

Zorro grins. “Yeah, he’s odd, I’ll give you that. But he genuinely does want to be friends with you, he’s a really friendly guy. And super nice once you get to know him.” He shrugs. “We’ve been friends since middle school, we grew up together. We just moved here and he thinks you’re cool, and the combination of those factors means that you’re the second friend I’ve gained in the past two weeks.”

“I’m not your friend.”

“Listen, if you really, really don’t want to be his friend, you can avoid him, or you can be really mean to him and hope he leaves you alone, or tell him to his face. I’m not sure how well any of them would work, but at least we’d try to keep him from bothering you in the future.” 

Sanji was silent for a moment. “Thanks for returning this.” He said, holding up the pack of cigarettes for a moment before sliding them back into his pocket. He turned and went back to work.

Zoro made his way back to the table, where Luffy was talking animatedly to Nami and Usopp. He quieted down when Zoro slid back into his seat.

“You talked to him?” Asked Nami.

Zoro leaned his head against the wall. “I talked – too much.”

“Yikes.” She said, “Now eat your food, Luffy’s been eyeing it for a little while, and its really good.”

Zoro ate while Luffy got back to talking about the first time he tried to cook his own dinner. A story Zoro had heard twice. Once from Luffy and once from his brother.

Damn, the food really was good, he thought as he took a bite. He finished the whole thing just in time for Sanji to leave the Kitchen with the fruit parfait for Nami. 

He placed it down in front of her. 

“Oh,” She said, in a slightly false tone of voice “I didn’t know the meal came with dessert.” 

He smiled at her “Just for you, and it’s on the house.”

She smiled back and he grabbed their empty plates and left for the kitchen again. 

Nami took a bite before he passed it to Usopp, carefully avoiding Luffy’s grabbing hands. “See,” she told Zoro. “I was right.”

“I know, I know.” He managed to grab a few Spoonfuls of the sweet desert before it was finally stolen by Luffy. 

“I bet he’s the kind of guy who gets in trouble with his boss for giving cute girls like me free deserts all the time.” 

Zoro rolled his eyes and, wow, Luffy was already done with the desert. 

He came back with the check and chatted with Luffy for a moment about the food. Luffy was mostly complementing him.

They pooled their cash for the check, which was surprisingly cheap considering the quality of the food was that of a classy five-star French restaurant – the kind none of them had ever been to.

They all walked down the sidewalk back towards their apartment afterwards. “That was a fantastic meal!” Luffy half shouted, half laughed.

Everyone else had to agree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up... more with the east blue crew


	3. Island Crew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! This chapter is told entirely in video transcripts

 

 **[VIDEO: Introducing: Nami!]**  

The camera focuses on a girl who is sitting in front of a white wall with a beachfront calendar and a large collection of sticky notes next to it in the background.  She has pale skin and a few freckles, blue eyes and red hair that’s tied up in an intentionally messy ponytail. 

She smiles widely at the camera and waves. “Hello. I took Luffy’s camera for the day, so we’re going to film a video. I am the new production manager for this channel and my name is Nami.” 

“I don’t know too much about youtube videos, I’ve watched some but I’ve never made any before, but Luffy’s my friend so I decided I’d help him out. I’m going to make him super famous.” 

“I don’t wanna be famous!” A voice yells from the other room. 

“Shut up, you’re ruining my ideas, including the idea that I stole this camera from you!” Nami yells back, looking and leaning off to the far left.  

The scene is very obviously cut between this frame and the last one.  

“I met Luffy when I moved to the island he grew up on. It’s a pretty big island, but they’ve still got really spotty cell service.”  

The scene switches to the kitchen, she’s sitting on the counter. “I met Luffy when I was in high school. I guess I never noticed him before sophomore year. Although I was actually in the grade above him and that probably had something to do with it. I met him and Zoro, didn’t really like them, but they grew on me.” She has a faint smile on her face. “So, when I graduated, I stuck around for a year, worked with my sister, tried out college (there's a small footnote on the screen that says _‘graduated ;)'_ ), then moved here because I got myself a good job.” She looks pretty proud at the last sentence. 

“My family owns an orchard on the island and they’re the  _best,_ I have one older sister, I love it there but I decided I’d rather live in the city. I really want to be a forecaster for a weather channel, but as of now I’m only a secretary at the network. Also there’s a whole ‘nother story about  _how_ I got said job, but that is for another time.” 

She claps her hands. “That’s kind of who I am, how I met Luffy, et cetera. I am going to be involved in the channel likely only behind the scenes, helping him out, PR, management, maybe helping edit the videos. I’m hoping I can make him famous so that I can reap all the awards, you know how it is. And who knows? Maybe I’ll take the camera again for another video – if inspiration strikes.” 

The camera switches to the end screen that says Straw Hat Pirate in red text with the subscribe button. This time, directly below ‘Straw Hat Pirate’ is says ‘Ft. Nami’ in orange text. 

There’s a scene after the end credits where Nami drags Zoro on to the screen by his arm and points to him, he looks very disgruntled. “Nami - What -” He starts, before noticing the camera. 

Nami points to him. “This is Zoro! He’s going to do a video next.” 

 **[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION]**  

 

* * *

 

 

 **[VIDEO:** **Indroducing** **:** **Zoro** **!]**  

“Hello” Zoro scowls at the camera. “My names Zoro. I’m friends with Luffy and I shouldn’t be here since I have nothing to do with this youtube channel.” 

The screen goes black with white text reading “The majority of this interview was completely unusable do to Zoro refusing to cooperate.” 

“Zoro” Luffy’s voice comes from behind the camera as his dark hand knocks opens a white door, Zoro’s sitting at a desk on the other side, typing at a computer, he leans back in his chair and turns towards Luffy with a smile as he walks over. 

“Whatcha doing?” Luffy asks, Zoro stares directly at the camera as he closes his laptop.  

“Work.” He replies, looking up at Luffy.  

“Okay!” Says Luffy. “Well, I was going to go try to down to the ferry dock to see what all the prices are for all the ferries to all the islands around here because I want to go out to see the old lighthouse, wanna come with?” He says this very fast. 

“Sure.” Zoro shrugs. “Is the camera coming with?” 

“Yep!” he exclaims, and as they walk out the door, Luffy points the camera towards a plain mirror with a blue frame and gives a thumbs up.  

He’s wearing his signature straw hat, at always. Some quiet upbeat music plays in the background 

There’s a shot clip of Zoro locking the door behind them, a slightly shaky one of the the park near their apartment as they walk, a shot taken as they walk down a street with three story old brick buildings surrounding them. Then a clip of Luffy walking ahead of the camera, presumably as Zoro holds it. The music fades out and Zoro points the camera around the intersection and pans it over to Luffy who points up at a yellow sign and says “We’re here!” 

The bright yellow sign reads “Cape Town Harbor Ferry”. 

There’s a shot of Zoro, crowds of people mill around in the background, the Camera is shaking slightly. “Hey Zoro, what do you think of the Ferry terminal?” Luffy asks. 

“I’ve been here a million times.” He says. 

“Yeah - but what do you think?” Luffy asks again.  

“I like it.” He replies simply. “It’s better when there aren’t a million tourists all waiting to go out to  _our_ island though.” 

“We don’t live there anymore.” 

Zoro scoffs slightly “it’s still our island. Also, we can’t get a discount out to the lighthouse.” The camera pans down to the the ferry price flyer that Zoro was holding in his hands all along. 

“Aw - but I intentionally didn’t change my address for this.” Complains Luffy.  

Zoro shrugs and holds up the flyer to the camera. “Sorry.”  

“What if we tell them that we’re from a historical society and we want to go out there to investigate the historicalness of the lighthouse.” Luffy suggests.  

The camera cuts to a scene of Luffy and Zoro around brick buildings similar to the ones they were near before. The camera is pointed at both their faces at they walk, which is a slightly odd angle due to Zoro being taller than Luffy. 

“We’re lost!” Luffy tells the camera.  

“No! No we’re not!” Argues Zoro standing behind him. He points towards the camera. “Stop telling your camera lies!” 

“Where are we?” Asks Luffy.  

“Near the apartment, I recognize that piece of graffiti.” Zoro points across the street and the camera zooms in on a big yellow smiley face on a no parking sign. 

“Come on lets just keep walking.” Says Luffy.  

There’s a few more shots of the alleys, the sky, cool looking graffiti, Zoro walking down the street, and Luffy, looking very tired. “Zoro” He says in the last shot. “Come on and carry me.”  

Zoro looks over at him.  

The camera cuts to a dark screen and then to a still shot of Luffy in his apartment. “We made it back! Even though it took us a half an hour!” He exclaims enthusiastically to the camera. “But it was fun, and you got to meet Zoro! He’s pretty cool and he’s one of my all-time best friends. See you all next time!” 

The screen goes to the end screen, but like the last video, has a short clip after the screen. It’s Zoro sitting in the kitchen like at the beginning of the video. 

“How’d you meet Luffy?” asks Nami off camera.  

Zoro stares up at her for a solid ten seconds before looking over at the camera, smiling extra wide and extra menacingly. “So, when I was a freshman, Luffy decided it would be a good idea to run through a window.” 

There’s another long pause.  

“Care to elaborate on that?”  

“No.” 

 **[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION]**  

 

* * *

 

 

 **[VIDEO: Dying** **Zoro’s** **Hair]**  

The camera focuses on Luffy, who’s holding the camera vlog style up to his face. In the background is Nami, in the kitchen, mixing something in a bowl.  “I went and grabbed by camera because Zoro’s doing something super cool! He’s dying his hair!” 

The next screen has a black background and a photo of Zoro of to one side, smiling, next to the title of the video.  

The camera zooms in on Nami, stirring something in a small paper bowl. Her hair is tied back and she’s wearing a ratty t-shirt and gloves.  

“I’m not letting you anywhere near me or Zoro while I’m dying his hair.”  

“Aw, come on Nami.” He complains to her. She points a gloved finger at him.  

“No - you can watch from outside the door.” 

“Can I put the camera in the bathroom?”  

She shrugs. “Why not.”  

The camera switches views, its pointed down at an angle, Zoro is sitting on the toilet in their bathroom, looking around, but not up at the camera. His hair is damp and already bleached blond, he’s wearing one of those disposable plastic yellow ponchos. 

Nami walks in and walks over to Zoro, “Are you sure about this color?” She asks. 

He nods.  

There’s a short time lapse of Nami putting the dye in his hair – it's bright green.  

The camera is set up interview style as Nami sits at the kitchen counter, Luffy’s sitting next to her, he looks over at the camera and then over at her.  

“It really takes and hour?” He asks and Nami responds with a nod. “Man- I don’t think I’ll ever dye my hair.” She cracks a smile at that. 

“You don’t really have the patience for that.” 

“No - I don’t, school was hard enough, the only upside of work is that I don’t have to sit still, or listen to other people order me around, not really...” He starts to trail off into a tangent and the video cuts to the same scene.  

“So - how do you know how to dye Zoro’s hair?” Luffy asks Nami. 

“Well, in addition to their being instructions on the box, I used to help Nojiko dye her hair sometimes.” Nami lets out a small laugh. “The first time she did it, I helped her. Mom was kind of pissed, but then Nojiko pointed out that she’s dyed her hair before, so she couldn’t really be mad.” 

“I can’t believe you filmed me.” Grumbles Zoro, standing only half in frame, he’s still wearing the yellow poncho.  

“What? And miss the opportunity for video evidence that you chose, of your own free will, to die your hair bright green?” 

“There’s no proof.” Argues Zoro.  

“I watched part of the video and you definitely said you wanted to dye your hair.” Luffy chimes in. He’s put one foot up on the stool he’s sitting on and is leaning his chin against his knee. 

“No  _actual_ proof. Also – for the record,” He leans in front of the camera, his head is covered in a sheet of plastic. “I happen to like the color green.” 

He ducks back out of frame as Luffy shouts after him “I’m pretty sure that’s proof of whatever.” 

The shot cuts again, this time to a view of a ratty brown couch and a worn desk that Luffy’s sitting on – their living room. The camera is set up across from Luffy. 

“Ready for the Grand Reveal.” Comes Nami’s voice. Luffy hops off the desk, picks up the camera and points it over to the door that Nami opens.  

Zoro steps out, wearing a plain white t-shirt and dark green athletic pants. “Ta-da” He says, rubbing the back of his, now very green, head.  

Luffy lets out a sound of amazement. “Zoro! Your head looks so cool! It’s all green! Like a like a bunch of moss growing out of your head!” 

“Oi, don’t insult my hair” - Says Zoro, pointing semi aggressively at the camera, he’s smiling. Nami’s off to the side and she has her phone out. There a click as she takes a photo and Zoro looks over. “Hey, isn’t that enough?” He points at the camera.  

“Nope” She smiles. “I’m sending this one to Sanji and Usopp.”  

“Hey, you witch, give me -” Zorro lunges towards Nami’s phone, Luffy’s laughing in the background.  The video freezes for a second and the words ‘Straw Hat Pirate’ and the subscription button hover over the image along with a link to his last video.  

**[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to showcase Nami, Zoro and Luffy's relationship just a little bit, so they are the only characters in this chapter (don't worry, the rest will appear at some point)


	4. Just A Normal Few Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a filler chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all!! I'm back!! I didn't think I would be but ideas for this fic have been bouncing around in my head for a week. I finally started writing again - but to buy me time for the next chapter you get some (hopefully enjoyable shenanigans)

** [VIDEO: finding the coolest animals] **

The scene opens on Luffy, who is sitting with his back to a nice-looking desk. There is some stationary and he’s chewing on a pen.

“Hey guys! It’s been a few days and I decided to make this video because I keep seeing really cool animals all around the city but I broke my phone yesterday.” He doesn’t explain the correlation between these too topics.

The video cuts to slightly shaky camera footage. The scene is familiar, it’s the park that Luffy filmed his second video in. 

A squirrel is spotted. “A squirrel” is shouted into the camera and the squirrel runs off with less than a second of camera footage. The camera shakes as Luffy runs after it. 

The video cuts to a slow zoom in on a different squirrel. This one searching through the trash. 

A shot of seagulls flying overhead, swooping through the air – their cries are distant. The exposure is not great, the sun is too bright.

The camera is moved quickly down towards the dark water. Seaweed grows.

“I was hoping to see some fish or something but all I see is seaweed. Which is a plant, not an animal.” A note in black text pops up in the upper right corner as he says this saying * _ Nami’s Note: seaweed is not a plant _

The camera has a slightly shaky shot as Luffy walks down the docks towards a fishing boat. “I sure hope someone left a lobster behind or something.” He jumps onto one of the smaller boats, which rocks precariously. 

The camera scans across the boat and then focuses in the water, where Luffy has spotted two ducks. “I’m not sure those are lobsters.” Luffy says. 

The camera moves again, the motion is something that could definitely cause someone to become slightly motion sick. “Oh shit.” Yells Luffy into the camera as it focuses on a stack of empty lobster cages in the corner. 

There ’ s a shot of someone walking two poodles down the street towards the camera. 

Then one of a German  shepherd  trying to lick an empty container of ice cream.

There are more videos of dogs. A lot of them.

There's a video of a cat in a window of an apartment. The camera is highly zoomed in, so the footage is a bit grainy. “Okay, that man was not very nice about me being on his boat, I get that he was mad but he didn’t have to chase me. I almost fell in the water.” Luffy says off camera while filming the cat stare back at him. 

There’s a short clip of a sparrow chirping in a tree and another short clip of a rat running away from a pile of trash.

There’s another video of a dog. This dog  is light brown and is wearing a rooster costume. “What kind of dog is that?” Asks Luffy, pointing the camera towards the dog owner. He’s rather short and has a large afro. 

“He’s not a dog.” He comments, pulling the leash gently to discourage his dog from licking Luffy’s knees. 

The dog lets out an.... interesting, chicken like noise.

“Wow that’s so cool!.”

The camera follows the two of them as they walk off. “I think I just found the best animal in the city.” Luffy comments into the camera.

The end title slide appears. 

**[END VIDEO DESCRIPTION]**  


* * *

 

** [VIDEO: My Role: Nami] **

Nami is sitting with her back to the same desk as Luffy was sitting at last time. There is a new sign taped to the wall that says  _ Luffy keep out _  and has a smiley face with a straw hat on it crossed out. Her hair is tied back away from her face.

“Hello, I got a question about what exactly my role on this channel is – which I was surprised about given that this channel is still....” Nami sighs and shakes her head, looking dejected. “below 10 followers.” She brushes a stray hair away from her face. “You’d think Luffy would have gotten at least 20 by now... with all the weird stuff he tells strangers.”

“Anyways - thank you very much Makino for the question!” 

“I don’t actually edit the videos, that is Luffy’s job, it’s his channel after all. However, I watch them before they go up on the channel so I can... suggest edits.” By the way Nami says ‘suggest edits’ it sounds like she’s seen some shit.  “I also will help set up the camera if Luffy wants to film something. I can also make my own videos for the channel, as I helped Luffy to set it up.”

“I don’t have any professional video making experience, but neither does Luffy. When he got this camera as his  gift  I thought it was a joke because he breaks things so fast.” She claps her hands together for emphasis - “So. Fast. He broke his phone last week a few days ago because he dropped it off the roof of the building.

“For context  -  our  building doesn’t even have  roof  access. I have yet to figure out how he got there in the first place.” 

“The  next door  apartment block has roof access.” Comes a muffled voice from offscreen. The words are also subtitled on the screen. 

Nami’s eyes focus somewhere off camera - “How do you know that Zoro.” 

There's  a clatter behind the camera and Nami stands up – her head is cut off by the edge of the frame. “ Zoro !” She yells again. 

There’s a frame cut, Nami is sitting back in the chair. Everything seems to be well. “Regardless of Luffy’s penchant for breaking things, I just want to assure Makino that everything is well, and remind the rest of our followers who have questions, that they can ask in the comments!”

The  _ Straw Hat Pirate ft. Nami _  slide appears on the screen same as the last Nami video.

Nami sits in the chair leaning back with one hand on her  forhead . “I think I’m going to need to change the title of this video.” She says in the direction of the cealing. 

There’s a clip of Luffy and Nami. Luffy is sitting in Nami’s chair, while she stands in front of the camera, not quite blocking the view of Luffy. “That was reckless and dangerous! The buildings aren’t only one level anymore Luffy! You could’ve gotten hurt.”

“I didn’t though.” He gives a smile as if he’s proud of himself.

“You broke your phone!”

“It’s just a phone.”

Nami lets out a grunt of frustration. 

“How did you even get into the other building?” 

“Well there was this weird old guy who looked really mad so he broke the front door, I think-”

“Wait never mind I don’t want to hear this story, I have the camera running, go tell it to Zoro or something.”

“Sure.” Luffy scrambles out of the chair and off screen. 

Nami’s hands fall limply by her side. 

The scene changes to Nami sitting in the chair again. She isn’t quite looking into the camera as she rambles.  “I was supposed to explain my role in the  youtube  channel, which is quite simple, my role in Luffy’s life on the other hand? Freakin’ complicated! How do you even explain Luffy?” 

She looks towards the camera. “In short I’m supposed to make sure those Luffy, no, Luffy  _ and  _ _ Zoro _ __ don’t get themselves killed doing something stupid, because that’s what they are – Idiots.” She sighs.

** [END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION] **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for writing style inconsistencies. my excuse is that it's been 8 months
> 
> I'm trying to get the next chapter up soon but feel free to yell at me on tumblr (marzxvii) in order to speed up the writing process (aka me staring frustratedly at my computer)


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